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Is Sferics Equipment Still Needed in the Cockpit?

It depends on the mission and how much money you’re willing to spend.

[Courtesy: Scott Dennstaedt]
Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • Sferics devices like Stormscope provide real-time, immediate detection of both cloud-to-ground and prevalent intracloud lightning, offering more current and detailed storm information than delayed, gridded ground-based systems.
  • Stormscope advantages include unaffected signal transmission (no attenuation), a quick refresh rate, and the ability to detect crucial intracloud activity indicative of early storm development and turbulence.
  • While requiring pilot interpretation, a sferics device is a valuable gross vectoring aid for assessing convective weather up to 200 nm and, when combined with data-linked weather solutions, significantly enhances in-flight awareness.
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Question: Now that ground-based lightning has made its way into our cockpits, is there still a need for a sferics device such as a Stormscope? 

Answer: It depends on your mission and how many Ben Franklins you have to spare. Your sferics (short for radio atmospherics) equipment may represent the only real-time weather you’ll ever see in your cockpit.

Sure, panel-mounted and portable weather systems deliver their product in a timely fashion, but it will never be as immediate as your sferics device. Once you understand how to interpret your real-time lightning guidance, it can become a valuable asset in your in-flight aviation toolkit. 

Scott Dennstaedt, Ph.D

Scott resides in Charlotte, North Carolina, and flies regularly throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast U.S. He is a CFI and former NWS meteorologist. Scott is the author of "The Skew-T log (p) and Me: A Primer for Pilots" and the founder of EZWxBrief.

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